We Do Not Hear That
Either Before Or After That Subjugation, Any Archbishop Of
Canterbury Ever Entered The Borders Of
Wales, except Baldwin, a monk
of the Cistercian order, abbot of Ford, and afterwards bishop of
Worcester, who traversed that
Rough, inaccessible, and remote
country with a laudable devotion for the service of the cross; and
as a token of investiture, celebrated mass in all the cathedral
churches. So that till lately the see of St. David's owed no
subjection to that of Canterbury, as may be seen in the English
History of Bede, who says that "Augustine, bishop of the Angles,
after the conversion of king Ethelfred and the English people,
called together the bishops of Wales on the confines of the West
Saxons, as legate of the apostolic see. When the seven bishops
{122} appeared, Augustine, sitting in his chair, with Roman pride,
did not rise up at their entrance. Observing his haughtiness (after
the example of a holy anchorite of their nation), they immediately
returned, and treated him and his statutes with contempt, publicly
proclaiming that they would not acknowledge him for their
archbishop; alleging, that if he now refused to rise up to us, how
much more will he hold us in contempt, if we submit to be subject to
him?" That there were at that time seven bishops in Wales, and now
only four, may be thus accounted for; because perhaps there were
formerly more cathedral churches in Wales than there are at present,
or the extent of Wales might have been greater. Amongst so many
bishops thus deprived of their dignity, Bernard, the first French
[i.e. Norman] bishop of St. David's, alone defended the rights of
his church in a public manner; and after many expensive and
vexatious appeals to the court of Rome, would not have reclaimed
them in vain, if false witnesses had not publicly appeared at the
council of Rheims, before pope Eugenius, and testified that he had
made profession and submission to the see of Canterbury. Supported
by three auxiliaries, the favour and intimacy of king Henry, a time
of peace, and consequent plenty, he boldly hazarded the trial of so
great a cause, and so confident was he of his just right, that he
sometimes caused the cross to be carried before him during his
journey through Wales.
Bernard, however commendable in some particulars, was remarkable for
his insufferable pride and ambition. For as soon as he became
courtier and a creature of the king's, panting after English riches
by means of translation, (a malady under which all the English sent
hither seem to labour), he alienated many of the lands of his church
without either advantage or profit, and disposed of others so
indiscreetly and improvidently, that when ten carucates {123} of
land were required for military purposes, he would, with a liberal
hand, give twenty or thirty; and of the canonical rites and
ordinances which he had miserably and unhappily instituted at St.
David's, he would hardly make use of one, at most only of two or
three.
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